Lauren's POV “That is the worst possible thing you could want to do, Lauren,” Darla protested against my request to see Katarina. “Even if you do want to do it, Damien would never allow it “ “I want to see Katarina. I want to know what I did to deserve any of this. I want to ask her if the only thing she holds against me is getting married to Damien,” I said. It was hard for me to think that she was only jealous, and that was it. She hit me with a truck after attempting to kill my mother. That was something you could only do to your worst enemy. “Tell me something, Lauren,” she said as she grabbed me by the hands and stood up with me. “Do you remember what happened now?” “All of it,” I answered. “From what she did to my mother to what she did to me, I remember all of it. I want to know what made her do it. If she had threatened me and told me to get divorced from Damien, I would have understood, but why did she have to bring my mother into it? Why di
Lauren's POV “What are you doing?” Damien asked me as he got into the room and found me folding some of my clothes into my bag. “Are you going somewhere?” “I believe I need a break from all of this. I have to get out of here for a while. I could check myself into a hotel and stay there for a while so that I can recollect everything that’s been going on around me,” I said. “You need to take a deep breath and tell me what’s going on,” he said, taking my shoulders and making me face him. “I heard your conversation with Darla a few minutes ago,” I admitted, seeing the genuine surprise on his face when I said that. “Lauren, we can talk about this. We can figure this out. You don’t have to move out,” he requested. “When were you going to tell me, if you were even going to tell me at all?” I asked him, crossing my arms and giving him an opening to say something in his defence. “I didn’t know how you would take it. It started with my father. My
Lauren's POV One moment, I was staring at my mother as she stood in front of me with her pale face and red-rimmed eyes, and I was hugging her and pulling her into my suite in the next. “How…how are you here? I just left the house, and you were still unconscious. Oh, my God. Do you need anything at all? Are you hungry?” I bombarded her with questions as I sat her down on the bed and wrapped a blanket around her. “Lauren,” she said, looking up at me with her eyes glossy from tears. “I can’t believe I still get to see you after everything. I don’t deserve any of this.” “You can’t say that. It’s not your fault. You deserve to be free and happy. You—” “You got married?” she asked me, taking her frail arm and using it to cup my cheek. “You have no idea how proud I am. I didn’t think I would get to see you again. I woke up and demanded to see you. The man claimed that he was your husband.” “It’s a bit complicated, but yes, I’m married.” I nodded in c
Lauren's POV “Mom!” I screamed, standing up and running after her as Damien overtook me and took his phone out to make a call to the front desk. “Don’t let her get out. Block all exits. If she makes an escape, every single staff in this hotel is fired,” he threatened over the phone. I could barely see where I was running to as tears blurred my vision. I had to slow down because of how heated and how fast my heart was beating in response to my actions, and I ended up falling to the floor and crying, aggressively wiping my tears. “Why are you doing this to me?” I asked a question meant for my mother that she couldn’t hear me ask just yet. “I just want you to be fine. Why do you have to do this to me? I know it’s not your fault, but…” By the time I managed to gather my strength and take the elevator to the first floor, Damien was shouting at his staff as they all stood in a straight row, looking down in shame. “How can you stand here and tell me
“Miss Lauren Walter, we’re calling to inform you that your father has officially gone over two weeks without providing the payment for your father’s treatments. He’ll be taken off treatment in the next five days if the payment isn’t made.”“No, please. I—”The loud beep came, signalling that the woman on the other side of the phone had hung up.“Oh, God. No, no, no,” I muttered to myself, wiping my stray tears. “Fuck!”I walked back through the backdoor and into the kitchen of the restaurant where I worked as a waitress.I took shaky breaths, wiping the cold sweat off my forehead as I walked towards the manager’s office.“Come on in,” his gruff voice responded right after I knocked on the door.The door creaked open, revealing the man with his salt-and-pepper hair and matching moustache sitting behind his desk. There was a toothpick in his mouth and he sat almost lazily. The customized, illuminated nameplate on his table, which a lot of the staff laughed at behind his back, drew my at
“Lauren,” Shirley squeaked, both of them scrambling to cover themselves with the white sheets. “I can explain, it’s really not—” “I don’t know if I really want to listen to you explain why you’re in bed with my boyfriend, Shirley.” I shook my head, turning to Conrad with tear-filled eyes. “How could you do this to me?” He only sighed and looked away in response, leaving me unsure of knowing if he was remorseful. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, Lauren, please.” Shirley attempted to stand up, but Conrad pulled the sheets back so he wouldn’t be naked. Shirley resorted to putting on her shirt and shorts. “Why…?” I questioned nobody in particular. This whole thing had just been thrown in my face and, as much as I needed answers, I didn’t want to hear much from them. “How long?” I said. “How long has this been going on?” “Three months,” Conrad was the one to reply now, his eyes fixated on me without an inkling of guilt. “Oh, God,” I collapsed against the door, squirming as Shirle
“Your father is not responding to the treatments anymore.” The mechanical-like voice of the woman on the other end played on and on in my head for the rest of the ride to the hospital. It took everything in me not to scream in the confined space of that car. She said he was unresponsive. She didn’t say he was dead. I chanted those words in my head until I got tired of hearing them from myself. Perhaps, I was only freaking out for nothing. They must have done something by then and he was now responsive. They must have forgotten to call me and tell me not to panic. As soon as we reached the hospital, I ran into the lobby, where the waiting room was, to find the receptionist with a concentrated look on her face as she read through a file. “Hi, hi!” I called out, reaching her desk like a wild animal. She flinched, frowning at me. “Walter?” She raised her brows, recognizing me. “Yes.” I nodded, panting. “You’ll
It was silent in the car. I was anxiously chewing on my fingernails, taking deep breaths that didn’t calm me as much as I wanted. I had lost my father, and I was about to lose my mother, all in one night. I couldn’t let that happen. “Please drive faster,” I pleaded, checking my phone to see that I had just three minutes left out of the seven minutes to be at home. The driver picked up his speed, thankfully, but I couldn’t tell if we could make it in time. “What’s the matter? I could always call my boss to sort it out for you,” he offered. “It’s fine, I’m fine. You’ve both done enough. This is more than enough,” I declined. Dragging strangers into my mess, even at their insistence, was not something I wanted to do, especially when I knew that my bad luck never ended. They could help me this one time and the next thing to happen to me would be even worse. I didn’t need that on anyone. “It’s really not a problem. He told me to let him know